Woodlands Temporary Bus Interchange
Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange was completed and opened along with the Woodlands extension of the North South Line in 1996. It is the first underground and the third biggest bus interchange in Singapore. The old Woodlands Bus Interchange was converted into a terminus for people leaving Singapore, as well as for Woodlands intra-town services that are serving the old town centre there. Later, it was deemed obsolete and ceased operations. Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange was the first underground interchange in Singapore to accommodate articulated buses and located below Woodlands MRT Station. Double deckers made their debut appearance in 19 February 1996 as an off-service SBS bus, one of which it is a Leyland Olympian 2-Axle and Mercedes-Benz O305 double deckers. Woodlands Temporary Bus Interchange took over operations from Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange on 12 March 2016, which will undergo addition and alteration works as part of the construction for the new Woodlands Station along the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL). The future Woodlands North MRT Station will be an integrated transport hub and consist of offices, restaurants, and shops above the bus interchange. It will be connected underground to the Woodlands North MRT Station. Inside the Old Interchange Woodlands Regional Interchange had a unique orientation as it is divided into two sides, depending on which direction it will depart. Bus Services between Berths 1 to 8 will depart towards Woodlands Avenue 7 whereas bus services between Berths 9 to 16 will depart towards Woodlands Avenue 3. Although SBS Transit Services 161 and 168 departs towards Woodlands Avenue 7, they are located in Berths 15 and 16 due to space constraints. History Spitting incident Police have arrested a 47-year-old man who was involved in the "spitting incident" at Woodlands Interchange on 22 October 2013 night. A statement from the Singapore Police Force added that the man will be charged in court tomorrow with committing a public nuisance under Section 290 of the Penal Code, and other offences. In a video of the incident, which was posted online by a bystander and has gone viral, a man is seen spitting repeatedly in the face of a woman, and hurling verbal abuse at another female commuter. SMRT staff are also seen in the video trying to calm the enraged man down, who is heard asking loudly “where are the police?” According to the bystander who filmed the incident, which happened around 9.30pm, the man had allegedly tried to cut the queue and was told to go to the back of the line. SMRT said in a post on their Facebook page that the police were alerted to the incident and that its security staff, while waiting for the police to arrive, “made a judgement call to intervene and to guide the aggressor away”. In response to SMRT’s statement, some Facebook users felt that the security personnel did not do enough to stop the man from threatening the women, and that they should have removed the aggressor from the scene. The man who was filmed spitting repeatedly at a woman at a bus interchange earlier this week, in a video that went viral online, was charged in court on 25 October 2013 charged in court and remanded for psychiatric evaluation. Juraimi Kamaludin, 47, faces four charges. He is accused of being a public nuisance with his aggressive behaviour at Woodlands Bus Interchange in an argument over alleged queue-cutting at about 9.30pm on Oct 22. He is also accused of spitting in the face of two women — 41-year-old Teoh Lay Peng and 34-year-old Lee Kuan Eng — during the episode. A fourth charge stems from Juraimi’s behaving in a disorderly manner in public in September, at about 8am at a void deck at Bukit Batok Street 21. If convicted of the disorderly behaviour offence, Juraimi could be jailed up to a month and fined S$1,000. For using criminal force by spitting, he’s looking at a maximum of three months’ jail and S$1,500 in fine for each count. The maximum penalty for being a public nuisance by behaving aggressively is a fine of up to S$1,000. The district judge has ordered him to be remanded at the Institute of Mental Health for psychiatric evaluation. His case will be mentioned again on Nov 8. A man convicted of spitting at two women at Woodlands bus interchange last October was jailed for five weeks and fined $800 on Friday. Juraimi Kamaludin, 48, a cleaner, had been found guilty after a three-day trial of being a public nuisance; spitting at Ms Teoh Lay Peng, 41, and forcefully pushing her out of the bus; spitting at secretary Lee Kuan Eng, 34, a total of six times within 10 minutes. In passing sentence, District Judge Lim Keng Yeow said the incident last Oct 22 had come about after Juraimi felt he had been unjustly accused, and he gave that considerable weight. "Even though that is so, your response was clearly excessive. Your actions were shocking. Your conduct was wholly unjustifiable," he said. Juraimi could have been jailed for up three months and/or fined up to $1,500 for each of the spitting charge. The judge noted Juraimi's previous records were mainly for theft and drug-related offences and that he had been free of trouble since his release in October 2011 until the interchange incident. In a touching exchange, the judge said he hoped Juraimi would never have to go to prison again, at least for the next two-and-a-half to three years. Juraimi promised he would change. Judge Lim said he believed him, and hoped that after his release, he would have a normal life, work and stay out of trouble. He told Juraimi he was confident that Juraimi would do that. And when Juraimi said it would not be just for the next few years but "forever'', Judge Lim said he hoped so. Juraimi said he wants to get married and settle down after this. The judge also told Juraimi to focus on the first three years, and said he looked forward to seeing him in three years, living a "normal, good productive life''. Juraimi was so moved that he broke down and cried in court. "I am speechless to hear this. No one has ever said that to me. I am very very happy and grateful,'' he said. For the incident last October, Juraimi was given the fine for scolding and shouting at the commuters on SMRT 950. For spitting at Ms Teoh once on the face, he was jailed for a day. He was given a total of five weeks for the two counts of spitting at Ms Lee and the act of pushing Ms Teoh out of the front door of the bus, which endangered the personal safety of others. Redevelopment Due to the construction of the upcoming Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) underneath Woodlands Regional Interchange, alteration works would be carried out to the existing bus interchange together with the upgrade to the air-conditioned bus interchange, thus focusing to be an Integrated Transport Hub (ITH) in 2019. A temporary interchange is constructed next to Woodlands MRT Station for the relocation of all of the bus services currently serving Woodlands Regional Interchange. Woodlands Temporary Bus Interchange (TBI) was launched on 12 March 2016. On 26 Dec 2017, Contract PT247 – Upgrading of Woodlands Regional Bus Interchange was awarded to CCECC Singapore Pte Ltd at a sum of S$21,567,800.00. Part of the works include converting the bus interchange into an air-conditioned facility. Works are expected to complete towards the end of 2019. Bus Contracting Model Under the new bus contracting model, all the bus services were split into 4 route packages-169, 856, 858, 963, 965, 966 and 969 under Sembawang–Yishun, 161 under Sengkang–Hougang, 168 under Bedok and the rest are under Woodlands Bus Package. Berths Category:Bus stations in Singapore Category:Woodlands, Singapore